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From Ride Appreciation Society.

Robert Smith with Mark Gardener of Ride and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine at Troxy London.

Update: also debuts at #1 in Scotland, Germany and on these other UK charts - Vinyl, Record Store, Physical Albums and Album Downloads. #3 in Ireland.

From Official Charts:

The Cure's Songs Of A Lost World becomes band's first Number 1 album in 32 years

The band's 14th studio LP outsells the rest of the Top 5 combined to reach the summit

By Carl Smith

The English rock legends, whose current line-up comprises Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Roger O’Donnell, Perry Bamonte, Jason Cooper and Reeves Gabrels, last topped the Official Albums Chart with 1992 record Wish. 

16 years in the making, Songs Of A Lost World outsells the rest of the Top 5 combined to reach the summit, and earns the group a 23rd Top 40 album overall.

Reacting to the news, The Cure’s Robert Smith says: 

“It is enormously uplifting, genuinely heartwarming to experience such a wonderful reaction to the release of the new Cure album. 

“To everyone who has bought it, listened to it, loved it, believed in us over the years - THANK YOU!”

Song Of A Lost World also tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, the week’s biggest seller on wax, and the Official Record Store Chart, proving the most popular LP of the past seven days in independent UK record shops. 

The record’s release reignites interest in The Cure’s back catalogue, too. 2001’s Greatest Hits returns to the Top 40 for the first time in five years, vaulting 76 spots (30).

From Music Week:

"Robert Smith is beyond passionate": Polydor's Ben Mortimer on The Cure's triumphant return to No.1

by George Garner

It was very much a case of Friday, The UK's In Love for The Cure, as the iconic group and their label Polydor celebrated an incredible charts results day on Friday, November 8. 

More than 32 years after their only previous No.1 album, Robert Smith’s band marked an emphatic return to the top of the chart with their 14th studio release – and first for 16 years – Songs Of A Lost World.

Indeed, Polydor co-president Ben Mortimer has told Music Week that even when held against their own lofty expectations, the response from the public has been "overwhelming". Songs Of A Lost World has effectively done seven times the first week sales of 2008's 4:13 Dream, and outsold three of their last four albums' entire lifetime sales in one week. 

So, how does it look when broken down?

Well, for one, The Cure outsold the rest of the Top 5 combined, with a stellar opening frame of 51,362 sales (19,838 CDs, 23,182 vinyl albums, 1,219 cassettes, 4,546 digital downloads and 2,577 sales-equivalent streams) according to Official Charts Company data.

First week sales of Songs Of A Lost World are, in fact, the fifth highest on debut for any album in 2024, trailing only Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department (270,091), Coldplay’s Moon Music (236,796), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet (89,658) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard & Soft (67,111). 

For further context, let's turn to Music Week charts analyst Alan Jones' breakdown: “[The Cure] also exceed the to-date sales of The Cure’s last studio album, 2008’s 4:13 Dream, which debuted and peaked at No.33 on consumption of 7,360 units, 16 years ago last week, and has to-date consumption of 35,123 units. Songs Of A Lost World’s 597.85% increase on that album’s first frame is due to many factors, including the fact it has been so long since an album by The Cure; the multiplicity of its physical formats (two CD, two cassette and six vinyl); a live stream of their 1 November gig at The Troxy; a BBC Radio Two ‘In Concert’ performance; and the popularity of Songs Of A Lost World singles Alone and A Fragile Thing. The latter track has provided the band’s highest radio airplay chart position – No.26 – for more than 20 years last week, including attracting 59 plays from the aforementioned Radio Two so far.”

Robert Smith wanted to know how much we believed in the record before he'd commit to working with us, so we didn't hear a note until the deal was signed – which was a touch that I loved and respected

On top of this, Polydor have actually secured a chart double this week, with their act Gracie Abrams also topping the UK singles chart with That's So True jumping to No.1 on sales of 40,798.

Here, Polydor president Ben Mortimer, talks about working with Robert Smith, getting the band back to the top, and more...

Before we get into the campaign, what has it meant to you personally to work on The Cure's first new record in 16 years? And what has it been like working closely with Robert Smith?  

“First off, I am the hugest fan. Disintegration got me through a tough period in my early teens. I've always loved the band's ability to be so mournful and despairing and marry it with such beautiful melodic pop songs, so it meant huge amounts to me personally to get to work on this. And working with him has been a privilege. Robert is so dedicated to his craft, he's beyond passionate about the band and its legacy. He wanted to know how much we believed in the record before he'd commit to working with us. So we didn't hear a note until the deal was signed, which was a touch that I loved and respected. He is hands on in every part of his business in the most inspiring way.”

The Cure have returned, obviously, to a massively different music landscape compared to the one they operated in with 4:13 Dream. What were Polydor’s hopes and expectations for week one given there's not been a new album for so long, and have the actual sales surprised you? 

“I had a feeling it would do well. We're lucky enough to work The Cure catalogue, so are well aware of how well their music streams and across so many generations. But this has been an overwhelming response that in truth we didn't completely predict. But then again it's an incredible record, with 5/5s across the board. As predictable as this sounds, the greatest music always finds its way to people in the end.” 

It’s interesting how you achieved the result without a very long pre-order period compared to most albums. What did you have to work with in terms of data/fanbase for the campaign? There's obviously their incredible catalogue too – how have you reactivated that in the run-up? 

“Whether intentionally or not, the band have been running the smartest teaser campaign. It would be worthy of a Music Week marketing award! He teased the record was coming years ago. Something he says he regrets, but it created a sense of folklore around the album, and the band have been playing songs from it on tour for several years. Clips have been all over the internet. All of this created feverish demand amongst the fanbase.” 

There looks set to be huge international success with the album as well, what role did Polydor play in connecting all the dots globally for that to happen? Did you have any specific territories outside of the UK that you really wanted to target?

“They're huge in Europe, Australia, North, Central and South America. As soon as we told our partners this was coming there was palpable excitement and demand. We zoned in on Germany, France, Holland, and several other key markets, and they've all delivered. It's testament to the power of the global company.”  

The Troxy show was another big moment of the launch week, not least because they played the whole album in full. Why are intimate launch shows still so effective in your mind? 

“Our partnership with YouTube on the live stream made it possible. And they recorded insane levels of traffic on it. They're a stadium and festival band, so to see them this intimate, was a special experience even for those on the live stream. Playing for over three hours… It was truly my 2024 highlight.”

On top of The Cure, Polydor also have the No.1 single this week with Gracie Abrams. What does that say about Polydor right now in terms of your roster, and your ability to get top results for veteran and new artists alike? 

"The Polydor roster is well renowned as one of the best in the UK business. We have long relationships with so many artists whose careers continue to flourish. Lana Del Rey is nine albums in, Michael Kiwanuka is four. The Cure and Snow Patrol recent successes are current examples of how seriously we take career longevity. Gracie's first number No.1 single shows how we are equally committed to the next generation of artists coming through. They are after all the lifeblood of our business."

(Photo, L-R): Ali Tant, Robert Smith, Jim Chancellor, Ben Mortimer, Faye Jordan and Fred Stuart) 

The Cure's Songs of a Lost World debuts at #4 on the Billboard 200 in the US.

From Billboard:

The Cure achieves its highest charting album in over 30 years, and first top 10 in over 20 years, with the No. 4 debut of Songs of a Lost World.

Songs of a Lost World bows with 57,000 equivalent album units earned (the act’s best week by units). Of that sum, album sales comprise 53,000 (The Cure’s biggest sales week since 2004, when its self-titled album launched with 91,000), SEA units comprise 4,000 (equaling 5.02 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Songs of a Lost World also debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales; the first leader for The Cure on the 33-year-old chart. The new album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across five vinyl variants (which sold a combined 23,000 copies; the band’s best week on vinyl since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991), a standard CD, a CD/blu-ray audio package, two cassettes, a standard digital download and a deluxe digital download with five bonus live tracks (exclusive to the band’s webstore).

From Variety:

The Cure - A Fragile Thing 7"

Mexico

France 

Universal Italy

Universal Spain 

Universal Germany 

Universal Japan

Capitol Records 

UK Shop

"For this limited edition release comes two new mixes both remixed by Robert Smith

Tracklist:
Side A - A Fragile Thing (RS24 Mix)
Side B - A Fragile Thing (RS24 Remix)

Limited to 4 units per fan."

From Billboard Charts:

The Cure hits the top 10 of this week's #AdultAlternativeAirplay with "A Fragile Thing" (up 12-10). It earns the band its first top 10 hit at the format.

It also earns the band its first top 10 on any Billboard airplay chart since "Maybe Someday" peaked at No. 10 on #AlternativeAirplay in 2000.

"A Fragile Thing" is the lead single from Songs of a Lost World, which concurrently debuts at No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums.

Can you put me in contact with the "tech team" of a political campaign?

I am offering my "time management for sysadmins" training pro-bono to any Dem or anti-Trump digital team, sysadmins, devops team, SRE, etc. Contact me via LinkedIn, DM me on Twitter or email me if you know my email address.

Come one, come all! nycdevops does its first virtual meetup! All are invited!

• Speaker: Adarsh Shah
• Topic: "Continuous Delivery for Machine Learning"
• Time: Thursday, September 17, 2020, 5-630 PM
• Link: https://www.meetup.com/nycdevops/events/272914068/

Hope to see you there!

This month's nycdevops meetup speaker is Nathen Harvey of Google, who will give a talk titled "Introduction to Site Reliability Engineering".

The talk starts at 5pm sharp! (NY is in US/Eastern)

Please RSVP! See you there!

https://www.meetup.com/nycdevops/events/272956481/

(This is a virtual meetup. Everyone around the world is invited!)

November's nycdevops meetup speaker is John Allspaw, who will give a talk titled "Findings From the Field: 2 Years of Learning From Incidents".

The talk starts at 5pm sharp! (NY is in US/Eastern)

Please RSVP! See you there!

https://www.meetup.com/nycdevops/events/273826675/

(This is a virtual meetup. Everyone in the world is invited!)

Don't forget!

November's nycdevops meetup speaker is John Allspaw, who will give a talk titled "Findings From the Field: 2 Years of Learning From Incidents".

The talk starts at 5pm sharp! (NY is in US/Eastern)

Please RSVP! See you there!

https://www.meetup.com/nycdevops/events/273826675/

(This is a virtual meetup. Everyone in the world is invited!)

https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2021/07/22/stack-overflow-for-teams-a-centralized-knowledge-sharing-and-collaboration-platform-with-tom-limoncelli/

If you've ever googled a CS or programming question, you likely found an answer (or many) on Stack Overflow. Founded in 2008 and named after a common computing error, Stack Overflow empowers the world to develop technology through collective knowledge. More than 100 million people visit Stack Overflow every month making it one of the 50 most-visited websites in the world. Stack Overflow's products include its market-leading knowledge sharing and collaboration platform, Stack Overflow for Teams, in addition to Stack Overflow Reach & Relevance, which is focused on advertising.

Stack Overflow for Teams is a knowledge sharing and collaboration solution that developers and managers already know and trust. It's for companies who need to increase productivity, decrease cycle times, accelerate time to market, and protect institutional knowledge. In this episode we talk with Tom Limoncelli, a manager at Stack Overflow, author, and tech advocate.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here!

Twenty years ago the first edition of The Practice of System and Network Administration shipped! Since then there has been a 2nd and 3rd edition (2006 and 2014), plus a sequel book The Practice of Cloud System Administration, and many printings. (see the timeline here)

When we started the project we had no idea if it would be a success. There was a real chance it could be a flop. Many people told us that our proposal was illogical: How could you have a book about system administration that is vendor agnostic and talks about process and people instead of specific tools and operating systems? Well, to be honest, we took a deep breath and started writing anyway. It took 2+ years but in Sept/Oct 2001 the book finally shipped!

Instead of a flop, the reaction we got was very positive! It has sold tens of thousands of copies. Many universities have used the book and its future editions as text books. It received the Usenix LISA Outstanding Achievement Award. One DevOps pundit told me she considers it to be "the first devops book" which was quite humbling.

When I visited Google in 2004 (a year before I considered joining) I was told everyone in the "systems operations" team was given a copy on their first day. The person giving me a tour then took me to a supply closet with 30 copies awaiting to be distributed to new hires.

However the real satisfaction comes from how it has helped others. Fans have related many heartwarming stories. Many fans have told us they felt like reading the book was a turning point in their life, that the book "turned me into a professional system administrator".

To thank our readers, our publisher is offering a special deal: 45% off the latest editions now until Oct 31, 2021 What? You still have the 2nd edition and haven't seen the dozens of chapters of new material in the 3rd edition? Or maybe you haven't heard of our Cloud book? Now is your chance to get the 3rd edition or the cloud sequel!

• Use this link: https://informit.com/tposa
• Use this coupon code: TPOSA

Thank you to everyone that gave us feedback on the early drafts! Thank you to all our readers! This book changed our lives and we hope it changed yours too!

P.S. We would love to hear from you! Please post a comment with reflections on the book.

Wintery spring rolls were the perfect lunch on a recent flight. Self-contained and slathered with a bold ginger-onion paste, filled with brown sugar tofu, mushrooms, lettuce, and herbs. The best kind of BYO plane food.

Continue reading Wintery Spring Rolls on 101 Cookbooks

Everything I know about making grissini. These beloved, pencil-thin Italian breadsticks are made with just five ingredients. No mixer is needed and you don’t need to proof your yeast.

Continue reading Grissini (Italian Breadsticks) on 101 Cookbooks

An inherited produce box packed with greens inspired this simple, one-pot winter penne pasta with a sauce made from a full bunch of kale, shallots, garlic, and goat cheese.

Continue reading Winter Penne Pasta on 101 Cookbooks

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If you’re facing criminal charges, the best thing you can do is look for opportunities …

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